On October 28, Yidu County was awarded the title of “National Ecological Civilization Construction Demonstration Zone” at the China Ecological Civilization Forum Jinan Annual Conference, as the first county of Hubei Province to receive this honor among “China’s Top 100 Counties”.

　　Yidu County lies at the joints of the Yangtze River, the Qingjiang River, and the Yuyang River, and it serves as an important ecological barrier for the Three Gorges with nearly 150km of riverbank line and surrounding mountains. In recent years, Yidu County has made thorough efforts on ecological civilization, and adhered to ecological priority and green development. Focusing on the tasks of rivers regulation, urban redevelopment, development of green industry transformation and talents introduction, Yidu County has made a variety of achievements, such as the construction of the high-standard Yidu Chemical Industry Park to consolidate the previous regulation of chemical enterprises along the Yangtze River, the transformation of green and circular industry by removing in total 860,000m2 of sturgeon breeding cages from the Qingjiang River and Yuyang River Basin and the regulation of 34 Yangtze River shoreline terminals with 11km of shoreline and 60,000 m2 green land restored. Besides, Yidu County has recovered 25,000 acres of wetland through the projects of ecological restoration of wetlands including Tianlongwan Lake, Guizi Lake, and Liaojia Lake, made an investment of 2.558 billion yuan to promote the regional comprehensive management of the three rivers and launched the EOD project of ecological protection and green development of the Yidu section of the Yangtze River with an investment of 10.8 billion yuan.

　　The extraordinary achievements of eco-civilization construction have rewarded Yidu County with high-quality economic and social development as well as prominence in county-level high-quality economic development in Hubei Province. Its regional GDP hit 90 billion yuan in 2022, ranking front in Hubei Province and 63rd among CCID national top 100 counties. It is expected to achieve its regional GDP of 63 billion yuan during the first three quarters of this year, a year-on-year increase of 8.4% and local general public budget revenue of 2.342 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41.1% and a tax rate of 78.6%. The main economic indicators suggest a strong rise of its economy.

　　The China Ecological Civilization Forum is annually organized by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the annual conference of this year was held in Jinan City, Shandong Province from October 28th to 29th in the theme of “Ecological Civilization of Beautiful China: New Chapter of Modernization Construction of Harmonious Coexistence of Humans with Nature”. At the conference, the titles of ecological civilization models were granted to 104 ecological civilization construction demonstration areas and 53 bases for innovative practice of the philosophy of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”. (Reporter/Fang Yonghua, Correspondent/Zhu Canyi)